Car blast hits Bahrain

Manama: A car exploded near a garden in the latest incident to hit Bahrain, the interior ministry has said.

The car blast occurred on Saturday evening next to a public garden in Budaya, west of the capital Manama, as Muslims broke their fast. No one was injured in the incident. “A car bomb was detonated in Budaiya on Saturday,” the Director-General of the Northern Governorate Police, said. “The car was parked next to the fence of a garden frequented by families and children. The bomb was fuelled by a gas cylinder. No injuries were reported.”

The senior officer said that police rushed to the scene immediately after receiving a call about the explosion at 6.24pm. “The initial investigation showed that two gas cylinders had been placed in the car but only one of them exploded. The blast occurred during the time of iftar when the garden was empty,” he said.

The police said that they were investigating the blast, and urged people who had information about the blast to help “identify and arrest the suspects and bring them to justice”. The blast was the second in two weeks to hit Bahrain.

On July 17, a car exploded at the parking of the Shaikh Eisa Bin Salman Al Khalifa mosque in Riffa, south of Manama. The explosion rattled Bahrain, prompting the bicameral parliament to hold an emergency session of the elected lower chamber and the appointed upper chamber and to issue 22 recommendations that urged tougher legal action against anyone involved in acts of terrorism or sabotage. The recommendations were taken up by the government and Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa pledged their full implementation, saying that any minister who hesitated to apply them would be dismissed.